Surprise for Germany

The Star-Telegram | February 12, 2003 | William Safire

[yellowroses]

NATO supreme commander, US Marine Gen. James Jones, revealed a developing U.S. strategy. It holds that tye 70,000 US troops garrisoned in Germany, accompanied by their 70,000 dependents, make up too many forces with too outdated a mission stationed too far from potentioal trouble at too high a cost.

At a time when the United States is painfully closing bases at home, many defense strategists conclude that we should reduce and redeploy our troops in Europe. By cutting the number in half; by rotating the troops every six months, thereby obviating the need for dependents' schools and extensive support facilities; and by moving the bases south and east toward low-cost Hungary, southern Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, the Defense Department could spread our military techniques and equipment throughout the alliance and train with fewer environmental constraints at far less cost.

[Kozak]

About damn time. Bring the Legions home from the Rhine.
Let the Euro weinies police the Balkans.
We have our own problems and interests to care to.

[Warhammer]

Super idea. It would be poetic justice.

[SAMWolf]

Good, it's about time Europe starts footing the bill for defending itself.

[Bodacious]

Finally!! Someone has the will to say what has been known for years!!

Semper Fi, General Jones!!

[justshutupandtakeit]

Absolutely right on the money. Put 'em in Poland. Course that will lead to an upsurge of GIs marrying pretty Polish babes but I can live with that.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Poland sounds like a good idea. Poland now is more capitalist than germany, anyway.

I cant believe how the Germans are acting....if it wasnt for the US...they would be speaking Russian by now

[Dqban22]

GREAT! DO IT ALSO EN SOUTH KOREA. CHOOSE QAND SUPPORT YOUR REAL FRIENDS

[philetus]

I cant believe how the Germans are acting....if it wasnt for the US...they would be speaking Russian by now


They would have been learning Russion in 1945.

[BigBobber]

(In my best Homer Simpson voice)

"Mmmmmmm, Polish babes...."

[GaConfed]

Yes, bring them all home and let them defend our own border with Mexico.

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

Please close every base...Every single one.

[AlaskaErik]

More than any other branch, the Marines are cognizant of what the purpose of the military is and how its mission should be accomplished. I just hope speaking the truth isn't going to cost him his job, like it did Maj Gen Singlaub a while back.

[johniegrad]

Bush's war?

[.45MAN]

Bring them all home there is no need for them to be in Germany now that the cold war is over and Russia is out of East Germany... Let the French and the Germans get togetherand defend each other...

[Michael81Dus]

It´s a d@mned s#!t that Schröder listen to its people. If he really cared about our opinions, he´d realized that a vast majority don´t want him to be Chancellor! His approval rates and those of his party are on the lowest level ever.

Better to have leaders who can act against peoples voice (like in all European countries where the people oppose the war, but the governments do not) than hair-dyers.

[Billthedrill]

Well, I always thought that overseas deployment of dependents was kind of wasteful, but the demography of the armed services went so much from single to married individuals that it would have been rough not to do it, I guess.

We probably should (IMHO) pull a significant portion of the land forces out of Germany, but not because the current administration there is behaving like self-righteous jackasses. These decisions are for the long term and must be made clearly and non-emotionally, because we're going to have to live with the results.

[AntiGuv]

I think it's a stretch to call this a "surprise" for Germany, although it's certainly an unpleasant development. The momentum has been building for some while to reconcile our European deployments with contemporary reality. It was only a matter of time and I think that was clear to everyone involved.

[Cultural Jihad]

Here visiting from DU, eh?